"We have all heard the expression 'Music has the power to heal'. Well, Beth Green "The Music Lady" has made that statement come to life. At past Heart to Heart Fund events Beth has very generously volunteered her musical talents for family entertainment. Her performances have been incredible. Full of fun props and with such enthusiasm you'd find it contagious."
"On Saturday morning (4-16-05), a packed audience of youngsters and their parents turned out at the James Library to see The Music Lady, Scituate musician Beth Green. For an entire hour, The Music Lady kept the kids laughing, smiling---and interested---as she wove together a fun morning of songs, games and movement!"
"Finalist! Best Lullaby CD, 2004!"
For love & melody
'Music Lady' combines tunes, God and children to create purpose
BY JANUARY HOLMES, The Island Packet
Published Saturday, January 28, 2006
"Beth Green can't help but sing wherever she goes.
It might be a rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," a new twist on the old tune "The Wheels on the Bus," or one of her own melodies. Known to her students as "The Music Lady," Green may seem to march to the beat of her own drum, but the music teacher said God is her conductor. By "letting go and letting God," she said she found her calling in music, reaping many personal and professional rewards both in her home state of Massachusetts and on Hilton Head Island. "(God) has moved mountains in my life," she said. Green seems to be a child at heart who has combined her passion for God, music and children to create purpose in her life. For instance, when Green was younger, she was always the summer camp counselor picked to lead children in a song and, while she was a swim instructor with the YMCA, young voices echoed her animated tunes, singing "The kids in the pool go splash, splash, splash" during lessons. And the songs made her the most popular swim teacher around. But music wasn't her first career choice. Though she graduated from college with a degree in psychology, with minors in music, early childhood education and dramatic arts, she chose a career as a childcare resource specialist. The job left her unfulfilled, she said. Wanting to work with children, she decided to leave the office setting and take a pay cut to work at a childcare center connected to a nursing home. At that job she spent much of the time entertaining children and older adults with songs and she discovered how music bridged any generation gap. "Longfellow said that 'Music is the universal language' and it is so true," said Green. "It can turn a careful observer into a dancer. It can break the shell of an Alzheimer's patient. It's so easy. There's nothing to it. People just want to be inspired." When Green married and had a child of her own she took time off to be a stay-at-home mom. But she had to go back to work to help make ends meet. This time, she worked as a music enrichment teacher in a variety of settings, from schools to museums. She developed her own curriculum, incorporating musical instruments, puppets, pom-poms and other props for babies, children, teens and adults who took part in her programs. In 1999, in the wake of a divorce and in need of a fresh start, she and her young son moved to another city in Massachusetts. With an uncertain future, Green said she clung to one of her favorite verses in the Bible, Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." "That verse is my rod and my staff," Green said. With her son starting preschool, she wanted to find a job that could support them and still have time to spend with her son. So she put her thinking cap on and started praying.
The answer came to her: Start your own musical enrichment business. Her program would be for the young, the not-so-young, the deaf, the mentally disabled and even speakers of other languages. She'd place babies in front of keyboards and let them bang on keys, she'd sing in other languages to expose children to different cultures, teach sign language through music, use music therapy to cure broken spirits and help adults and children find their voice. She would call herself "The Music Lady." Then, "word of mouth just snowballed," she said. "God heard my plea in how I can be a vessel and resource to our financial health while spending time with my child." In 2002, she was persuaded by a friend to record a children's music album. Since then, she's made a several other recordings geared to children. Her career was taking off, but last June, in another step of faith, Green decided to move south. "I couldn't stand another New England winter," she said. But leaving Massachusetts meant leaving all of her clients behind, which included more than 30 schools, nursing homes, and individuals. The prospect of moving made her turn back to her favorite Bible verse again. "Starting out in a new place is very daunting," she said in hindsight. "God was still in that the whole way. I had to let go and let God. He was in this completely and totally." Green set her sights on Hilton Head Island, after researching prospective places to relocate. She choose the area because of the island's reputation as an arts community and the influx of young families moving here. Within seven months, she said God made "The Music Lady" prosperous by providing clients and other job opportunities. "When God is in your life, there are no such thing as accidents," she said. Today, she has music programs at many schools on the island, operates a private studio, and develops and teaches Dramatic Arts & Music curricula at her local children's theatre and a private academy. She was recently named as Director of Children's Music Ministries at two local churches.
She calls these jobs a blessing that allows her to continue to spend time with her son. Green said that her son, now 9, likes to help her pick out instruments and props to use in specific music classes. Green calls him her "technical advisor." She said she's especially glad to work at many of the faith-based schools in the area, an opportunity she didn't have up north. "I'm much more free to share (my faith)," Green said. Though life has offered its share of challenges, it hasn't stopped Green from keeping a melody in her heart. "Music is my vehicle," she said. "It started as a solution as to how I could spend every second with my son and the blessings keep overflowing my cup... I hope to be able to continue to do what I do until I'm a very old music lady."
"A little song, a little dance and a whole lot of fun!"
By JENNY LIM
jlim@islandpacket.com
843-706-8134
Published Wednesday, June 6
Beth Green has a lot of titles: Music educator. Recording artist. Voice coach. Choir director. Developer of educational programs at Main Street Youth Theatre. Photo: Beth Green, right, known to many as "The Music Lady," gets a laugh out of her students May 22 at M.C. Riley Elementary School. "I feel with the special needs [students] in particular, there's unbridled, unrestrained joy," Green said. But when a batch of Michael C. Riley Elementary School students with special needs trailed after her while she snaked around their classroom singing and playing a guitar, it seemed obvious Green could add another moniker to her resume: Pied Piper. Green, who dubs herself "The Music Lady," wrapped up her first year of working with M.C. Riley special-needs students last month, conducting them in an end-of-the-school-year performance at the elementary's May 22 International Festival.
The 5- to 12-year-olds eagerly gripped handbells colored different shades of the rainbow. Green stood at attention in front of her pupils, then stretched out her arms and tickled the air with her finger tips. On teacher's cue, different sets of the children jiggled their metal instruments. The tune, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" saturated the auditorium.
Through her monthly music classes at M.C. Riley -- which included 18 special-needs students and another dozen kids from the general student body -- Green hoped to do more than expand the young musicians' language for colors and weather, or get them to exercise both hemispheres of their brains through various pantomimed movements.
The music enrichment teacher also wanted to nurture the kindergarten through fifth-graders' confidence and creativity, in a way that only song and sound seem to achieve. "I want to engage kids used to having walls up," Green said. "What's going to be the magic that breaks the shell?" The answer, apparently, lies somewhere in between her singing "The Wheels on the Bus" while hopping up and down and puffing a series of staccato hoots on a giant wooden whistle, then getting students to whirl streamers around themselves in a washing machine motion. Mesmerized by the Music Lady, the kids sang and shrieked with delight. "I feel with the special needs [students] in particular, there's unbridled, unrestrained joy," Green said. Of course, it's hard not to have a blast with an educator who carries around her own portable bubble-making machine, idolizes Julie Andrews and sings practically every line of her lessons. "You get what you get and you don't get upset," Green crooned as she handed out flourescent-colored mini-tambourines and red and white pint-sized castanets to the special-needs students, during a class following their festival performance.
How the music started
The Music Lady began her business more than eight years ago in Massachusetts, where she offered similar therapeutic music coursework at 36 schools. Green essentially leads students of all ages and learning abilities in endless sing-alongs, coupling lyrics with easy choreography, sign language and simple instruments, like drums and bells. Since moving to Hilton Head Island in June 2005, the children's music specialist has offered her class at other schools on the island, as well as senior living centers like the Carolina House of Bluffton. She also directs children's choirs at St. Andrew-By-the-Sea United Methodist Church and First Presbyterian Church on Hilton Head.
Green developed her curriculum based on her studies at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, where she earned a degree in psychology with a minor in dramatic arts, early childhood education and music. Green said her teaching incorporates large muscle motions that develop both sides of the corpus callosum of the brain: actions that she technically labeled as "bilateral gross locomotor movements." That may be the one phrase Green can't quite set to music. But regardless of its official term, the combination of song and dance seemed to ignite a sparkle in all ages of the M.C. Riley students, as they ended their year of singing with the Music Lady.
"The sky really is the limit with music," Green said.
"'Music Lady' Beth Green feeds kids' craving for performing with new school"
By JENNY LIM
jlim@islandpacket.com
843-706-8134
Published Thursday, November 29, 2007
Beth Green has stars in her eyes. In fact, she's got 26 of them. That's the number of 6- to 14-year-olds Green has enrolled in the School of Performing Arts, a new, after-school academy she opened on the south end of Hilton Head Island, for youngsters whose first idea of play is the kind performed on stage.
"Let me tell you, I have some little stars in there who are just itching to be heard and applauded," Green said of her junior coterie of maybe-someday-celebs.
But Green's goal isn't to find and coach Broadway's next big name at Providence Presbyterian Church, where the performing school is housed. The music educator said her mission is to feed kids' bug for the stage. She wants to help them muster up the courage to stand in the spotlight.
If they happen to sing show tunes in the meantime, so be it.
"This is a vehicle for a child's talents or interests to be celebrated and nurtured along," she said. "It's not at all unlike sports or another avocation or hobby."
Her school is not a children's theater, Green said, but just another island organization that aims to enhance local kids' theater training. She offers two types of 10-week programs: private singing lessons, and group classes that include everything from speech writing to acting, voice projection to word pronunciation.
That means some students only take weekly, one-on-one classes with Green to ready for singing competitions or their regular school and church choir performances. But those in the group classes join in games and exercises that teach them how to execute lines or be a better stage partner, eventually prepping them to appear in the performing school's plays or musicals. Many intend to audition or perform in productions at Main Street Youth Theatre, where Green worked as director of education until Sept. 28.
The school opened three days later on Oct. 1, and since then, Green's first students have been preparing for December performances of two
30-minute plays written for children. "Liza and the Lost Letter," a comedy about practicing the Golden Rule, will be performed by 6- to 9-year-olds, while 10- to 14-year-olds will put on "Eggheads," a comedy about stopping the rumor mill.
Neither production is a musical, but Green said her students may tackle melodic numbers when the Jan. 7 session begins.
"Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone: a comedy tonight!" Stephanie Raines, 13, sang during her private voice lesson Monday.
Green instructed the student to sweep her arm invitingly across the stage when belting out the popular Stephen Sondheim Broadway tune.
"Bring it!" Green said, urging Stephanie to up her energy and facial expression.
"It's fun to just relax, kick back and do something I love," said Stephanie, a seventh-grade student at St. Francis By the Sea Catholic School.
Shelby Allen, another seventh-grader who attends Hilton Head Christian Academy, said after a day full of classes, she thinks it's still worth it to spend time in a private lesson with Green each week. Shelby has appeared in multiple productions with Main Street Youth Theatre, and said the private lessons will help keep her voice strong for any upcoming performances.
"If you want to put on a great show, you have to give a lot of time," Shelby, 12, said. "Even though I have so much homework to do, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."
Providence Presbyterian offered to host the school for Green, who is also on staff as the church's director of a kindergarten through fifth grade music program. The church campus includes a mini-amphitheater, where the students take their once-a-week classes.
Green additionally directs children's music groups at St. Andrew By-the-Sea and First Presbyterian Churches on the island. Known in many Hilton Head and Bluffton schools as "The Music Lady" for her musical enrichment classes, Green has experience working with Lowcountry pupils.
But Green said working with her newest batch of students gives her a special kind of thrill.
"They are in these classes for a reason. Either they or their parents saw something inside of them that said, 'Wow, this would be a great thing for me to be involved in,' " she said. "There's a reason these children are here. I don't believe in accidents."
The School of the Performing Arts
To register:
Visit www.singhappy.com or call 843-422-4271. Tuition for the 10-week session for students ages 6 to 9 is $120 (for a weekly one-hour class). Tuition for the 10-week session for students age 10 and up is $240 (for a weekly two-hour class). Classes for special needs participants also are available.
Student performances will conclude each session.
"Music Therapy at Bluffton High School"
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